Injury Bug Hits Northwood Academy Football Team As They Travel To Play Charlotte Latin
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Summerville—The Northwood Academy (1-1) Chargers football team has been fighting the injury bug so far in the ’26 football season, and after two games the Chargers have a 21-14 win over Heathwood Hall to their credit but they suffered a 60-28 loss to Bethesda Academy in the season opener.
“Not making excuses but we had seven starters out when we played Bethesda and they are a solid program,” said Northwood Academy head coach Johnny Waters. “They have great athletes running all the place. I have not seen a SCISA team with that much in quite a while.”
Coach Waters is entering his 4th season as the head football coach at Northwood Academy and he helped lead the team to the SDCISA 2025 AAAA state championship. He has been a head coach for a total of 13 years and he has three state titles on his resume.
This week the Chargers are planning a road to play traditional power Charlotte Latin on the road. “They are a prominent private school in the Charlotte area with a rich athletic tradition in both football and basketball,” said Coach Waters. “We feel like we are going to be near full strength as a team in about two weeks. It can’t come fast enough.”
In the win over Heathwood Hall last week senior QB Kevin Johnson (6-1. 195) completed 9- of -16 passes for 133ards and one TD. RB Mike Polite rushed 22 times for 167 yards and one TD. WR Amire Simmons caught three passes for 44 yards and one TD.
After two games Johnson has completed 18-0f-42 passes for 283 yards and four TD’s. “Kevin got started a little slow last year too but he gets stronger as the season goes along and he will be just fine.” said Coach Waters.
Drew Wolfe leads Charger receivers so far this season with 9 catches for 167 yards and three touchdowns.
Against Heathwood Hall, WR Tourance Johnson caught two passes for 38 yards and Bryce Jenkins had a 96-yard school record pick six, and he caught two passes for 25 yards.
The Charger offense produced 293 yards against the Highlanders while the Charger defense allowed just 193 yards. The defense gave up 77 yards rushing and 116 yards passing.
The defense is led by CB Bryce Jenkins who has five tackles to date while DE Mitchell Lanier and Max Pascazio are next on the hit index with four tackles each.
The OL consists of senior center Kenneth Robbins, four-year starter Kaeden Wagner (6-2, 270) is a prospect at LT and he gas some college offers. The RT is junior Brayden Andy, and the RG is senior Justin Watson who can also play in the DL. The LG is 6-3 senior Jacob Harrelson.
The Chargers have two newcomer freshman players who will contribute right away. They are WR C. Johnson and WR Amire Simmons.
